Meetings With a Side of Snark
by Kapu479
Summary: Two new intriguing characters after EoS. Rowan's barely holding together. A quest to save one queen and kill another... Enjoy! Please review!
1. Meetings with a Side of Snark

My heart was beating erratically in my chest, adrenaline pumped through my veins, my legs were pumping beneath me, the rough terrain whizzing by blinding fast. I never felt so free. I adored the strength hidden in my fae body. It was amazing. My dark brown curly hair was blown this way and that by the sudden strong gust of wind. I froze.

The sudden stillness of the night was alarming. My ears strained to hear. I smelled them before I heard them. The stench was overwhelming.

"A halfling. And A pretty one too." The voice that hissed behind me was neither female or male and caused a cold to creep up my spine. I swallowed. Twice. And turned around.

The creatures I saw were something out of Hellas nightmares. They were Ilken. And there were four. I had heard of these beasts along my travels to the Fire Queen in Terrasen, but I had hoped we would never cross paths. The beasts had claws as long as my forearm and bodies so misshapen it was hard to believe there were once human. It's skin an ashen gray and teeth gnarled stumps. I looked into the beast closest to me. I saw my reflection in its startlingly human eyes. My dark hair was coming out of its braid, my hazel eyes were round and wide, my short curvy figure was miniscule compared to the hulking beast before me.

"You are going to taste good." The beasts were salivating, prowling, waiting. They think I am weak, that I am nothing more than a snack on their way to the hell they crawled from. They thought wrong because I am Aeval of the Night and my swords and raw magic was going to destroy these monstrosities to shreds. My full lips twisted into a vicious sneer.

"Man, hell must smell worse than I thought. The stench coming from you is enough to make a girl faint." The things did not like my tone one bit. The leader one narrowed its' eyes.

"You have no fear. No matter, you will soon be quaking in your boots." The thing twisted its mouth into what I think is a smile. I didn't need to fake the shiver that passed through my body. The beasts noticed my tremble and started to move closer. Good. I needed them distracted.

"Ooh I'm so scared of the puppy." I rolled my eyes hoping to antagonize the creatures. And by the hissing noise seeping from their mouths, I succeeded.

"How dare-" I get the beast off with a hand gesture.

"Shhhh.. I don't understand puppy. Can you understand me?" I spoke loudly as if the animals were deaf and made wild hand movements to imply that it is also stupid.

"I am going to eat the flesh off your bones." The beast was spitting mad. Literally. I wiped spit from my face.

"One, gross. Two, you soon won't have a face to eat me with." A look of confusion was on the beast's face when its head was severed from its neck. The other beasts looked around, perplexed. Suddenly, there was a flash of steel and another Ilken was on the ground. The others started to panic at the unseen threat, but before they could do anything I took the remaining two down with a brutal swing of my blade.

"I said to distract the things, not send them into a fiery rage." My twin brother, Kalen, popped back into existence about three feet away from me. His unruly dark brown hair was windblown, his sea green eyes and plush mouth narrowed at disgust towards the abominations at our feet. I scowled.

"I need to put a damn bell on you." Even though Kalen had had his gift for as long as I can remember it still scared the bejeezus out of me every time he just popped back.

"And I need to put a muzzle on you." He snapped back with an equally impressive scowl. My eyebrows jumped at the sudden snap in his tone. He took a one look at my expression and sighed.

"You know I have reservations about going to Terrasen. What if the Queens court doesn't want us? What if they try to kill us? What if they're not even there?" I rolled my eyes. He had said the questions so many times these past weeks, I could have recited it with him. I didn't respond because he wasn't exactly wrong.

The Queen was rumored to have been taken prisoner by the evil Queen of Doranelle, Maeve. But Aelin's court is also rumored to have returned to Terrasen to regroup and replan. And we were going to offer our services to her mate, Rowan.

"You _know_ how much we need to do this, Kalen. Not only will we help save the Queen, but we get a chance to kill Maeve." I walked to a little alcove in between the bushes to gather our supplies.

"There are better ways to do that! I want to kill Maeve as much as you do but we don't need to storm into a kingdom and 'offer' our help to complete and utter strangers who might try to kill us!" I turned around to see him shoving his fingers through his hair and huffing out a breath. I walked up to him, close enough that I to tip my head up to look him in the eye. He towers over me.

"Kalen, we need to do this. We have to. You know we do." He sighed his consent.

"Fine, whatever you want. But if the shifter tries to eat us, I'm feeding you to her and running." I laughed and shoved one of the packs at him.

"Come on Birdbrain, were almost there." We had been in Terrasen for days, traveling the last leg of our journey to the heart of Terrasen, Orynth. I riffled through the packs until I found what I wanted.

"Score! We still have some hard candy from that village." I opened the candy and popped it into my mouth.

"That's from like two weeks ago. You're disgusting." He shoved me to prove his point.

I stuck my tongue out at him. He flicked me.

The night went silent.

We both lost all happiness and stilled, listening for sounds of life. I heard footsteps and drew my sword. From the sound of it there were three people coming straight for us. Kalen looked at me and communicated silently the only way twins can.

 _I'll go invisible. Keep your magic ready and don't make them mad._ I glared at him with enough venom to kill a witch.

 _I'll do whatever the hell I want, Birdbrain._ He chuckled silently. I flipped him off.

The footsteps were closer and Kalen winked out of existence. The intruders scents hit me. I inhaled. There were definitely three and there were fae. Powerful fae. I braced myself for a fight and crouched down into a loose defensive position. The Fae crossed the tree line.

One of them had silver hair and pine green eyes. The others had matching golden hair, one with turquoise blue eyes and the other a tawny brown. There were all tall muscular warriors ready to kill first and ask questions later. The one with silver hair spoke first.

"Who are you." It was more of a demand than a question.

"Aeval." I gave them a syrupy smile.

"What are you doing here, Aeval?" The one with turquoise eyes asked.

"I have my business and you have yours. Do you mind if I asked your names?" The fae were not buying the innocent act.

"We are asking the questions here." The one that smelled of pine and snow snapped. The one with tawny eyes cut the silver haired one a sharp look.

"Where is your companion?" He asked. I gave him a vague hand gesture.

"Here and there."

"Who killed the Ilken?" He took a step forward.

"You're lookin' at her." The males did not like my tone one bit. The silver haired male snarled.

"Jeez don't get your panties in a twist. I'll tell you what you give me your names and I'll tell you what you want to know." I spoke to the one with the tawny eyes. He seemed least likely to rip out my throat.

"I am Aedion." The one with turquoise eyes voice was clear and loud in the empty clearing. "This is Rowan." He pointed at the figure with the green eyes and silver hair. "And Gavriel." He jerked his head in tawny eye's direction. My eyes widened and my throat dried.

"Maluhia." I barked. The males looked at me like I had grown two heads. Kalen became visible in the space beside me. He was in a loose defensive crouch, like mine, covering my left, my weak side. That's the way we were made to balance each other. He takes the left i take the right, he has the personality that calms people, makes them feel safe, while I make people laugh and have the desire to strangle me at the same time. I'm the sun, he's the moon. The males were recovering from their shock and started to draw their weapons.

"Woah." I sheath my sword and show my hands palms up. "We come in peace. We are Kalen and Aeval. We have come seeking a meeting with the court of Terrasen." I tried to sound respectful.

"Meeting denied." Rowan said bluntly. Gavriel shot him a look.

"I wouldn't be so hasty to turn us away." I said with a good dose of snark. "We are after all Furlan's kids." I watched their reactions closely. Gavriel and Rowan wore expressions of sadness and regret. Furlan after all, was the only one of their cadre to have been killed. By Maeve no less. And it was their fault.

"Meeting accepted." Gavriel and Rowan said in unison.


	2. Talk with a Little Tongue

I snorted, and Kalen gives me a look, _Do not blow this. We need them to get to Maeve._ He was practically shouting at me.

 _I know Birdbrain._ I snapped back.

"Shall we?" The one with green eyes - Prince Rowan - said with a tight smile. That smile conveyed a million messages. He has had grief of the rawest kind. The kind that only came with losing someone you love. The kind that said you had little hope or happiness left in your life. I gestured for them to lead the way.

The silent trio led us to an nondescript inn. The walls needed a good scrub and a fresh coat of paint, the tables just needed to be burned, and the floors looked like they hadn't seen a broom in ages. The inn had six levels, we took the stairs to the highest . The room we entered was plain with three beds, a dying fire, and weapons strewn about the place. Swords were placed haphazardly about the room, daggers and bows were scattered about the medium sized space. The room barely fit the four fae males and me comfortably.

"Daughter and son of Furlan." Gavriel mused aloud, almost as if he was testing the words in his mouth. Trying to convince himself it's true.

"Do you not believe us?" I demanded. Kalen bristled beside me at the slight edge in my tone.

"No, I believe you. Your scents tell us all we need to know." He gave us a silent look to continue. Gavriel sat at a cramped table shoved into the corner resting his elbows, and fingers laced together. We instantly knew what he meant.

"We would like to offer our services." Kalen said with his quietly authoritative voice. The trio all looked at each other, silently communicating in a way only people who have endured hell together could.

"What do you mean?" Gavriel seemed to be the spokesperson of the group. That was fine with me. The dude was nice to look at.

"We charge forty dollars an hour, fifty if you want tongue." I said. Eyebrows shot off foreheads

"What she means," Kalen shot me a look that said _Shut the hell up!_ "Is that we have traveled to Terrasen seeking you out to offer our services in rescuing the Queen."

Silence.

"Why would Furlan's heirs want to do that?" Rowan said with a lethal quiet.

"Because we would like to have the chance to try and kill Maeve." The males stilled in a way only fae could. Gavriel and Rowan looked like they had been expecting and dreading this answer, and Aedion just looked confused.

"I'm lost." Aedion said curtly with the air of someone with little to no patience.

"Would we have to pay for your services?" Rowan asked apparently ignoring Aedion's comment.

"Nope. Just provide food and shelter." Kalen said.

"Well then welcome to the unofficial court of Terrasen." Gavriel said with a lion's smile.


	3. Dry History

The males purchased another room for us. It was smaller than the grand room the others were staying in, with only one bed, but we had no problem with it. A bed was better than the forest floor.

"We leave in the morning." Aedion said. He entered the room after us and shut the door behind him. Even though we were now on a team my instincts, the ones that said to kill, to protect, to survive, were still on high alert.

"Care to clue me in on who the hell are you?" He said with as much subtlety as a lightning bolt. I shrugged.

"Oh well my name is Aeval and this is Kalen. We also are twins with kickass powers, and extremely good looks." I said back. Aedion prowled toward me. He had a look on his face that made me understand why he was called the Wolf. He looked savage. With his lips in a tight snarl and his eyes narrowed. Kalen smoothly stepped between us.

"We are the heirs of Furlan, the unnamed king. He was the unofficial ruler of Doranelle before Maeve, and when she gained power she gave him two choices. One, he become the first of her oath sworn warriors, or she would murder his mate. He, reluctantly, agreed to become the first of her personal cadre. Maeve only wanted him at his side because of his powers, the power to manipulate magic. It was raw magic at its purest form, taking the color of the wielder, and had no limits in what it could do. It could form weapons of solid air, it could shift winds, tremble the earth, manipulate flame and water. It was amazing as it was deadly. With Furlan at Maeve's side no one could touch her. She was safe from everyone but Furlan. Furlan knew that, knew he could end Maeve and her cruel reign, he just had to wait. So he and his mate waited. Twenty years ago Furlan's mate, Caesana, became pregnant." I shifted and clenched my hands, even after being told the story a million times, I hated it.

"Furlan and Caesana would do anything to keep the child out of Maeve's clutches. Would even kill for it. So, they tried. Furlan arranged for Caesana to escape Doranelle, and readied for his attempt to destroy the Dark Queen. He waited for the perfect moment, and found it in a dance Maeve was throwing. He was going to kill her in three days, but for his plan to work he had to confide in another, Lorcan. Furlan told his plan to Lorcan. And Lorcan betrayed him. He warned Maeve. And when Furlan was about to make the killing blow she was ready.

She had the other members of the cadre hiding and when Furlan went to deliver the blow they attacked him. He was outnumbered by the most powerful fae males alive. They finally brought him to his knees before Maeve. When asked what he would do for Maeve's forgiveness he spat on her. She had Lorcan decapitate him. On a boat heading towards Ardalan, Caesana gave birth to twins, and died in childbirth. Her sister, Kryla, had accompanied her on her journey to this new continent, and raised the fae children on her own." Aedion's face was one of sympathy. I wanted to punch him.

"Where are we going?" My voice cutting into the silence like a knife. Aedion looked at me with pinched eyes, and cocked his head in a silent question..

"What?" He asked.

"You said we leave in the morning. Where to?" I asked.

"Oh," He regained some composure. "We are going to meet Dorian, Manon, and Lysnadra. They went to recruit some more members for our… rescue team in Melissande." Aedion's posture relaxed speaking the names, as if they were as familiar to him as his own sword. Dorians name was spoken with the tone of an older brother, Manon's with a tense trust, and Lysandra's with familiarity. As if he spoke the name to himself aloud often

"Well, wake us up when it's time to go. You know I've never been to Melissande." I said half to Kalen and Aedion and half to myself. Aedion left the room and I tossed on my pajamas. Melissande. The allies of Morath and, last I heard, full of very attractive and very single partners. I smiled to myself. Oh, this trip was gonna be fun.


End file.
